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Friday, December 22, 2017

Symphysodon or more popular known as discus is
one of the most popular aquarium freshwater fish for since long time ago. This explained
why there are so many varieties of discus in the market to make sure there
always new characteristic introduce into the market every year. Discus originally
native to Amazon River basin is actually part of cichlids genus. Today most of
the fish breed and live in the aquarium.

Not like gourami that little tougher to water
condition and diseases, discus is more sensitive and considered as ‘fragile’ fish. It’s not suitable for
starting your aquarium hobby – unless you already started with few other easier
to keep fishes for some period of times. Anyway for some qualities this fish
has, you might want to try to keep it in your aquarium at some points.

Wide varieties of colours and patterns.

Gathering in groups.

There are three main species of discus; Symphysodon aequifasciatus (blue), Symphysodon discus (red), and Symphysodon tarzoo (green). Anyway by
selective breeding, aquarist successfully produced many varieties of colours
for this fish. So there are many beautiful discus fish you can keep - if you
like to see all of these beautiful colourations and patterns.

As any other cichlids discus has thinner body
from the top, but flatter and beautifully almost round from the side. This
shapes rarely found in freshwater fish, that’s another reasons why discus
become so popular. Discus also has patterns on its scales. As mentioned before,
they are many new patterns produce by aquarist all over the year.

Discus behaviour itself is wonderful to watch.
It’s highly social behaviour and prefer to be in groups up to dozens of individuals
and only separate itself from the group during the breeding season. Discus will
take care their young for the first four weeks. They also will secrete a mucus
for their young to feed on. For all that reasons, discus still maintain itself
as popular aquarium fish for so many years.

Let see some of the varieties of discus. More
details of this fish will be included in the future articles.

Thursday, December 21, 2017

Another beautiful aquarium fish known as
gouramis consist many types of colourful fishes. There are huge number of
fishes in this family from smaller size fish to a bigger one. Gouramis are easy
to keep in the aquarium as they are more tolerate to aquarium environment. The
most important is they are also colourful – the important factor to make it as
beautiful aquarium or ornamental fish.

Gourami has thinner body if looking from above
and broader from the side. They have smaller scales (some bigger size gouramis have
bigger scales such as Giant gouramis; Osphronemus
goramy) and they all make beautiful ornamental fish. Even though gouramis
also popular as a food source in many areas where they can be found.

Same as any other ornamental fishes, gourami
also been breed to produce more varieties of colours. Here we want to see these
varieties to know the possible colours you can get from gouramis.

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

For the past few years I travelled to Bangkok to
meet my friends and also to see the tourist attractions in the city. I missed it
last year and this year when I returned to Bangkok, I found more
positive things happening in this city that make it more wonderful. There are more places to visit in Bangkok alone, but here let me share something
that I saw in this trip.

Bangkok is one of the biggest cities in South East
Asia countries with more than 8.3 million populations with its unique cultures
but still consist of different races. It’s always wonderful to return to Bangkok
- and there always another Wat to visit, nice places such as floating markets,
or new malls that scattered all around the city. Something different this time,
I will stay in the Silom area as it will be easier for me to meet my friends
that will come from New York.

Motorbike taxi another convenience way to travel in Bangkok.

Bike rental also available in some places.

Fruits seller at the market.

Another thing that I like about Bangkok is that
I can easily take a train directly from the airport straight into the city - in
fact directly to the hotel where I stayed (just few meters away from the
station). Even though it is easier to take a taxi, well you know travellers
like me always want to try something different whenever possible. Some other
reason why I prefer to use train in Thailand than taxi is for the traffic condition in
Bangkok that always unpredictable.

Met my friends the next morning - they stayed
one station away from me. I thought I could walked a little until I found a
taxi to go to their hotel. I only found that I already reached the next station,
then to safe my time I saw the motorbike taxi (that was the first time I tried
it in Bangkok). Morning traffic is busier, so the taxi never get into small
alleys. While motorbike taxi, not just cheaper but also faster during this rush
hours. Another experienced and I made it to my friend’s place to have out breakfast
together.

Waiting for the train at the Silom MRT Station.

Another train lines in the city of Bangkok.

Bangkok seems less crowded (actually it is well
arranged this time). Their pedestrian walk also cleaner and sellers in proper strategic
places. They also keep their area cleans. It will be much better if they put
more rubbish bin, so it will be easier for people to throw away the rubbish.
Anyway I believe they will do it soon.

Other than meeting with my friends, I also
managed to visit two more tourist attractions in the city. Wat Arun, always on
renovation for the past few years of my visit to Thailand and now it’s open
again to visitors. In order to visit it, I need to go to the pier near Wat Pho,
well why not I visit this another wonderful attraction.

Directory of Wat Pho.

Walking around the vicinity of Wat Pho.

Another sight that you will be amazed with.

Wat Pho is one of oldest temples in Bangkok with
its function as royal temples. It is associated with King Rama 1 that reigned
from 1782 to 1809. It was originally known as Wat Photaram or Podharam, from
which the Wat Pho is derived. Also located in this complex is Phra Maha Chedi Si
Rajakarn a group of four large stupas, each with 42 meters high. You will
notice how big it is until you get close to it (and it almost impossible to get
it into your photo). Here more than thousands of Buddha images can be found include
the largest reclining Buddha with size of 15 meters high and 46 meters long.

Wat Pho also considered as the earliest centre
for public education in Thailand. Here houses the school of Thai medicine and
also known as the birthplace of traditional Thai massage - and still taught and
practiced until today. It will take few hours if you really want to see all the
details of this complex. There are many stories for every buildings and statues
that placed all over the places.

Among thousand of Buddha Statues at Wat Pho.

Wall painting at the temple of Reclining Buddha.

Many other statues can be found all over the places.

From Wat Pho you can just walk to the pier
where you can take boat to cross the Chao Phraya River to Wat Arun that looks
majestic from afar. For the past few years Wat Arun was under long restoration
works and only open again recently to the tourist. Wat Arun Ratchawararam
Ratchawaramahawihan the full name of Wat Arun derives its name from the Hindu
god Aruna, can be seen as the morning light when the first light in the morning
reflected from its pearly iridescence surface. Wat Arun can be seen from afar
for its central prang (Khmer-style
tower) has height up to 86 m (282 ft.) - there’s no official height measurement
done so far. Wat Arun surely become the best iconic temple to see from the other
side of the river. It’s also one of the best photos object during sunsets
and night time as the light hitting its surface make it looks shining.

Crossing the river to visit the Wat Arun.

The surrounding area of Wat Arun.

The fence of War Arun.

Wat Arun is totally different from any other Wat
here in Bangkok as it’s resemble giant stupa instead of temple. Anyway they are
stairs to climb up to some points from each of its sides. Anyway tourist can
only climb to the first level - it will be nice if we can climb little bit higher.
All around the Wat there are many other ancient Chinese figures of soldiers and
animals that make it more attractive to see. All I can say, it’s nice that I
can make here at last.

At the entrance.

Climbing stairs to the first level.

Tiny pieces of porcelain decorated the temple.

For this visit I used many other public
transports provided in Bangkok includes Grab Taxi, MRT, motorbike taxi, boat and
BTS. It is so convenience to travel around as Bangkok is popular with its
traffic jam. With all the improvement in Bangkok, the tourist industries will
keep on flourishing to boost its economy.

Sunday, December 17, 2017

We have been looking for koi fish for these few days. As koi one of freshwater ornamental fish, let see what other options we have in the same group of this class. As you know most of the freshwater fishes are small, with shorter lifespan that also make their prices cheaper. Anyway some of them are really beautiful and have fairly long life that will be sell at so expensive price (up to million dollars). Freshwater fish are easy to take care of compare to the saltwater fish, so here we will see some of them.

10. Neon Tetra

Neon Tetra is really GMO product anyway still nice to see it in your aquarium as it can glow under UV light. Produced in order to help scientist to detect water pollution, but something not working according to plans so, it was turned into aquarium fish instead. It will add something beautiful to your aquarium but we still not sure the impact of this fish if we put it back into the wild – so keep this fish safely in your tank.

9. Sword Tails

Sword tails is another simple fish to keep same as Tetra but still nice to see as they will swim together in the small group in your tank. They are few colour variations from sword tails too, so the right colour choice will add extra vibrant into your aquarium. As sword tails are easy to keep, it is suitable even for young beginner to start their new hobby.

8. Fire Mouth Cichlid

Fire Mouth Cichlid is another easy fish for new beginner especially when they prefer a bit bigger colourful fish. With its bright red colouration on their underneath of its body. They might be more aggressive during the breading season. So it’s either you can keep it alone or provide proper protection areas (hiding place) so they can lay their eggs peacefully.

7. Goldfish

Goldfish one of the most popular fish to start with as it is easy to keep. Anyway there are still few simple rules to follow. Gold fish have beautiful colours and swim slowly in the water. Suitable for kids to start learning how to keep fish in the aquarium. With good care, gold fish can live much longer in the aquarium.

Aquarium gourami is different than the wild types gourami. Just like any other aquarium type fishes, they are specially breed to produce wonderful colours to look more attractive. Gourami’s body is thinner but broader from the side. Gourami can achieve a bigger size and live much longer than goldfish. Gourami can be keep in small group and they have slower motion (and sometimes not move) - it will give you more time to see their details.

Another beautiful freshwater fish from Amazon River. They are wide range of colours from red, yellow, green, blue, oranges, brown, and cream with different shades. They also have different types of marking make it more attractive. With all the qualities, discus become great choice if you’re looking for colourful freshwater fish. Discus is considered expensive for beginner. So make sure you have some knowledge before start to invest on this fish.

4. Angelfish

They are many types of freshwater angelfish with many colours of them. The reason to make them special than any other freshwater fish is their shape. Angle fish has triangular shapes while they also come with various colours and marking. They are many types’ of triangular freshwater fish, but usually we still refer them as one group – Angelfish. Same as other types of fish has been breed to produce more colourful species for ornamental purposes.

3. Flowerhorn Cichlid

Flowerhorn Cichlid is another cichlid family produced from various crossbreeding of cichlid family. The most significant for this type of fish is the protruding head and the spots on their body. While they also have various colours, but the markings are considered more important. Most popular colour is red. While the most expensive Flowerhorn ever was sold for 600 thousand dollars during Malaysia exhibition in 2009.

2. Arowana

One of the most expensive freshwater fish other than koi. The different is, arowana is harder to keep and it’s rarely keep in open pond. Arowana known for its beautiful larger scales even though it will only have one or few dominant colours. They are some extant species from South America, one from Africa, several from Asia, and two from Australia. Larger scales make them resemble the Chinese Dragon another reason that make it so popular among Chinese keeper. Arowana requires larger space, and rarely keep in large number in one tank.

1. Koi

Koi is more colourful and beautiful to keep in open pond. Not like Arowana you can keep few koi in the same pond. Even though the price of koi can be expensive, most of them are at fair price when small and will be kept until they achieve bigger size. They are so many colours of koi with different types of scales, produces by koi breeders in order to get new types of koi. Koi are suitable in open pond as they are colourful when they swim together in small group.

Well, the more you learn the more you know about colourful species of freshwater fish - that you can get the same result with saltwater fish, where the care will be more complicated. With proper planning and understand what you want to achieve from your hobby will help you to know which fishes are suitable with you. Anyway, you need to start with something simple to develop the knowledge and some experiences before you get more serious with expensive fishes.